Steve Stockman's surmising on art and faith...

25/01/2017

DRIVE IT, LIKE YOU STOLE IT - The Pause For Thought That Got Censored!

Last Saturday I was travelling to our Fitzroy Session Day Retreat and on the way, listened to the Sing Street movie soundtrack. I actually only listened to the original songs written for the film, mainly by Gary Clark and one on the end that Glen Hansard had a hand in.

As I was listening I was aware that these were songs of adolescence and then realised that no they were songs for all of life. The film is about songs for resistance, the listening, the writing and the performing of songs that help us deal with what is up against us as we attempt to find our place in the world, the loved one to commit to, the cause to be passionate about, the vocation to make your imprint in the world around you.

So, I made these songs my songs, at 55 years of age, still travelling with a desire to kick the darkness, punch a hole in the night, change the world!

This week’s theme for my Radio 2 Pause For Thought was Theme Tune for Life and I immediately went for a Sing Street song. Sadly, its slight reference to joy riding was never going to get past the BBC censor, so we give it a miss and replaced it with U2’s I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For. A predictable substitute but one that was also true, just the same!

Here’s my original idea. And to note… I am not endorsing joy riding!!!!!

Giving me theme like Theme Tune For Life fried my head. I have thousands of CDs and records in shelves all over the house. Songs to soundtrack my life? I could compile a box set!

My life’s motto is 10:10. Our Church has it as its mission statement too. It is my birthday. October 10. I love seeing our youth running around wearing sweatshirts with my birthday all over it. 10:10. Last summer in Uganda I had an entire school shouting 10:10 every single day.

You see, it is not just my birthday. In the New Testament, in the Gospel According To John, Jesus says that he has come to bring life and life in all its fulness. John 10 verse 10! As a teenager I took hold of that idea. I wanted that life in all its fulness. I grabbed hold of Jesus offer.

A couple of weeks ago my wife and I watched the movie Sing Street. Its set in Dublin in the 80s and tracks the life of a teenager whose parents are breaking up, who has had to change school, who was being bullied by fellow pupils and even a teacher. And of course there was a girl…

Anyway, the way the young man deals with his situation is to use music as his resistance. He forms a band and writes songs. Written by Scottish songwriter Gary Clark, the songs are brilliant.

One of those songs is called Drive It, Like You Stole It. Interesting title suggesting that dangerous crime of joyriding which is not being endorsed in the movie or on the Vanessa Show! See it as poetic licence. Drive It, Like You Stole It is a song of an adolescence seeking life in its fulness…

“This is your life

You can go anywhere

You gotta grab the wheel and own it

And drive it like you stole it

Roll it

This is your life

You can be anything

You gotta learn to rock and roll it

You gotta put the pedal down

And drive it like you stole it”

It’s that desire for 10:10… life in its fulness. And I am not confining that to my adolescence. I’m going to grab the wheel and own it and drive it like I stole it every day. We gotta Rock n roll it Vanessa!

Comments

"See it as poetic licence. Drive It, Like You Stole It is a song of an adolescence seeking life in its fullness…"

Thanks Steve, I'm encouraged and challenged in equal measure, as someone who has a couple of years on you, that's my desire too. 10:10 every day, but I have to battle the flesh which loves it's comforts and would rather sit on a comfortable couch; thanks for some mid-week motivation to get off my butt!